Updated August 26, 2020 | 11:38 a.m. PDT
The growth of the big complexes of fires in California, LNU, CZU, and SCU, has slowed in recent days, but the LNU and SCU Lightning Complexes still gained 4,509 and 5,717 acres respectively in the last 24 hours. The August Complex southwest of Red Bluff increased by 16,097 acres.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the lightning fires in California, including the most recent, click HERE.)
The blazes have charred more than 1.32 million acres, killed seven people, and destroyed nearly 2,000 structures. The fires are being fought by 280 hand crews, 2,400 fire engines, 300 dozers, and 370 water tenders for a total of 15,000 personnel.
In addition to the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group working on a request for firefighting assistance from Australia and Canada, California activated the National Guard for help containing the blazes. On August 23 CAL FIRE issued equipment to 270 soldiers as they were beginning basic fire training at Camp Roberts. Another group of 300 soldiers will arrive next week for training. CAL FIRE will embed with each 20-person crew a Captain and two firefighters for supervision.
Below are updates on some of the largest incidents in California, with data from CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service.
LNU Lightning Complex
- Updated August 26, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
- Location: North Bay
- Counties: Napa, Lake, Yolo, Solano, Sonoma
- Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa
- Acres: 357,046. The largest fire in the complex is the Hennessey Fire, 299,763 . The Walbridge Fire west of Healdsburg is 54,923, and the Meyers Fire on the coast north of Jenner is 2,360.
- Structures destroyed: 978
- Personnel assigned: 2,207
- Evacuation information: CAL FIRE LNU Twitter page
- Notes: Fires that merged to become the Hennessey Fire include Gamble, Green, Spanish, 5-10, Morgan, and Markley Fires.
SCU Lightning Complex
- Updated August 26, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
- Location: South Bay
- Counties: Santa Clara, Alameda, Stanislaus, Contra Costa, San Joaquin
- Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Santa Clara
- Acres: 365,772
- Structures destroyed: 31
- Personnel assigned: 1,655
- Evacuation information: CAL FIRE SCU Twitter page
- Notes: Fire activity has lessened due to favorable weather conditions and increased humidity across the complex. Deep seated heat still remains in the bottom of the steep, inaccessible drainages. During the evening fire crews held existing control line around the fire perimeter continuing to both reinforce and add new containment lines. When weather and conditions are favorable there will be a controlled burn operation inside the control line. This controlled burn will widen the buffer and consume fuel between the edge of the fire and the control line.
CZU August Lightning
- Updated August 26, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
- Location: South Bay
- Counties: San Mateo, Santa Cruz
- Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE San Mateo-Santa Cruz
- Acres: 79,640
- Structures destroyed: 443
- Personnel assigned: 1,697
- Evacuation information: CAL FIRE CZU Twitter page
- Notes: It is burning in Southern San Mateo County and Northern Santa Cruz County actively above the marine layer in the heavy timber and thick undergrowth. Approximately 77,000 people have been evacuated.
River and Carmel Fires
- Updated August 26, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
- Location: Five miles south of Salinas, near Pine Canyon Rd. and River Rd.
- Counties: Monterey
- Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE San Benito-Monterey
- Acres: 48,424
- Structures destroyed: 30
- Personnel assigned: 1,183
- Evacuation information: CAL FIRE San Benito-Monterey Twitter page, and see maps produced by Monterey County here.
- Notes: Firefighters patrolling the fire Tuesday confirmed that the fire remained within containment lines. The onshore winds from the northwest allowed the fire to travel very slowly to the south with in containment lines.The Carmel Fire 2 miles southwest of the River Fire has burned 6,901 acres and destroyed 37 structures.
Dolan Fire
- Updated August 26, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
- Location: on the coast 10 miles south of Big Sur
- Counties: Monterey
- Administrative Unit: U.S. Forest Service, Los Padres NF
- Acres: 21,844
- Structures destroyed: 0
- Personnel assigned: 880
- Evacuation information:
- Notes: Fire behavior was moderate throughout Tuesday night. Crews performed structure defense in the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and continued to protect private property and clear roadways around Partington and along Hwy. 1. Crews continued to secure direct and indirect lines to keep the fire out of Hermitage, Lucia and Morning Glory. Progress is slow due to rough terrain and lack of available crews. On Wednesday, crews will continue to focus on the northern and southern edges of the fire by constructing and enhancing control lines, with the priority being lines along McWay ridge and above Lucia northeast to Twin Peaks.
August Complex
- Updated August 26, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
- Location: 18 miles southwest of Red Bluff
- Counties: Tehama, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Trinity
- Administrative Unit: Mendocino National Forest and CAL FIRE
- Acres: 197,148
- Structures destroyed: 10
- Personnel assigned: 476
- Evacuation information:
- Notes: As of Tuesday evening: firefighters are opening preexisting fire breaks as control lines on the south portion of the Doe fire (160,436 acres 31% contained). Structure protection is continuing when it is safe to do so. Line construction is continuing on the Glade Fire (18,307 acres 0% contained). Firefighters are working in coordination with Crane Mills Timber and using dozers to tie in the north portion of the Tatham fire (8,958 acres 11% contained). .
IMHO, the Fire Mangers in California are not allowed to due big RX burns like we do in south , to much EPA and other State regulations , in the early 80’s and early 90’s we did allot of burning but we still had to fight to burn logging piles , slash , just to clean up the timber sales , sad thing is we had to fight for smoke space with the rice farmers in the valley , not sure what it is like now , but i’m sure the politics hasn’t gotten any better, hope it has gotten better …… Just my opinion , I’m not in-fav of all the Big Box theory that the Gov and the States are doing now , but if its not safe to put our fire fighters in there, going indirect may be the only way to go , with the limited amount of resources avail. and all the fire Cal has going what else can the Fire Mangers do ?
If we took the money spent on bringing in fire overhead from Australia and Canada and used it to keep crews hired through the winter, to thin-pile-burn, brush out egress roads and do other fuels work, would the public be better off? This importing of exotic firefighters has a whiff of the bio-political.